Not applicable
This invention relates to the field of coupons and business cards mailed to consumers for promoting sales or the like.
Sales coupons mailed directly to consumers are well known. In most cases, such coupons are printed individually by or on behalf of individual vendors, then gathered and mailed or otherwise distributed in bulk to a broad range of consumersxe2x80x94for example across an entire urban area. Thus, any one recipient may receive coupons from vendors whose place of business is inconveniently far away, or whose products may be of relatively little interest.
It is also common to print coupons in sheet form, many coupons being printed on a single perforated sheet whereby the recipient may tear out coupons of individual interest. Again, however, many of these coupons may be of little use to the recipient.
Examples of earlier coupon systems include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,097,067 to Schechter (1978) and 5,468,021 to Ovadia (1995).
The recent widespread availability of data processing machines, and the networking thereof both locally as in so-called xe2x80x9clocal area networksxe2x80x9d and broadly as by the so-called xe2x80x9cInternet,xe2x80x9d has made feasible a radical change in the way coupons are deployed.
To provide a system for printing and distributing sales promotion coupons and business cards which more meaningfully addresses the individual needs of potential consumers. The system is based on demographic data and provides individualized coupon sets which explicitly target the needs or desires of individual or sets of consumers grouped according to their locale or preferences. A part of the system further provides ancillary information to benefit the consumer, such as an indexed map of the buying area.